The Veins of the Earth

[Zireael]

I'd had a feeling that the year mark passed when I was away and I was right.

The first commit is dated 21 Jun 2013 and the first beta was dated 15 Jun 2013.

[Zireael]

Another beta with lots of juicy additions, which means:
a) I need feedback
b) there may be bugs

Grab it from GitHub or Bitbucket ... or wait for ModDB.

CHANGELOG:

* bug fix - all skills triggering the spell failure checks
* bug fix - specific items had a typo in their on_wear
* bug fix - look around key throwing a lua error
* bug fix - locked out of inventory sometimes
* bug fix - plate armor being worn causing an error in the moddable tiles resolver
* bug fix - poison code not checking for immunity

* random worldmap
* humanoids now use A* pathing
* add ranged AI code inspired by DataQueen
* new monsters: babau, dretch, quasit
* new items: throwing axe, throwing knives; mushrooms, rods; enabled tattoos; mithril coins, emeralds, sapphires;
* new egos: dwarven, elven; of the Winterland, of the Druid, of the Hin; of brightness
* reduced the CR cap for dungeon level 1 to player level +1 and to player level +2 for dlvl 2-5
* tiles/ASCII switch finally works!
* split off thrown weapons into a separate file
* add a hint when a cursed item is auto-destroyed
* prevent clicking on learned feats in feat selection screens
* character creation screen improvements - highlight Cleric/Ranger/Paladin as newbie friendly; darkened Luck as it's not implemented yet; color-code high & low stats; highlight bad choices (spellcasting classes who wouldn't be able to cast spells) in dark red

[Zireael]

I've been working on more dungeons and digging. One more thing to fix before digging works 100%...

but I have another problem: I've copied and adjusted the sandworm lair so that I could see how tunneling works, but my tunnelers aren't getting anywhere, like they're not getting the level spots...

[darkgod]

BTW on IRC desophos seemed to be interrested in helping you, you should come on there and talk

[Zireael]

Thanks for the info DG, it seems desophos is full of valuable feedback and UI contributions

[darkgod]

You may now proceed to pay my commission !
I accept payments in tears only.

[Zireael]

A town level is now in. I plan to add some variations to it, however. All town levels are persistent. I also added an arena level purely for the sake of testing combat.





That's right, hirelings are now in! Getting them to a working state was surprisingly easier than I thought, just yesterday and today in between some UI improvements. (Shopkeepers have been made notably less chatty, too!)

Next: trying to figure out how to give casters spells at game start.

[Zireael]

Character creation, now 100% better! Tabs, deity selection, asterisks and more!

[Zireael]

A test build has been uploaded to te4.org.

Grab it here: http://te4.org/sites/default/files/game ... 1.5_0.team

The changelog is pretty long and I'd like to know if there are any outstanding bugs/issues that should be fixed before Oct 1 at the latest, when BETA 6 proper will arrive.

[Zireael]

Thanks to StarKeep for reporting on a few minor issues.

***
Beta 6 is here NOW because the changelog was growing unwieldy!

Grab it from GitHub or Bitbucket or wait for ModDB.

CHANGELOG:

* bug fix - Lua errors in load premade
* bug fix - no more xorns showing up without a name
* bug fix - digging works properly now without errors
* bug fix - lance is now named properly
* bug fix - a rare possibility that a base weapon (without combat values defined) would spawn
* bug fix - outdated tiles after loading a premade/saved character
* bug fix - shopkeepers spewing their dialogue every time they bumped into you
* bug fix - tutorial boss not spawning
* bug fix - Lua error due to oversight in combat poison code
* bug fix - increasing stats throwing a Lua error [desophos]
* bug fix - ensured reachability and spawning of dungeon entrances in worldmap
* bug fix - getting messages about unseen enemies using spells/skills
* bug fix - proper tiles for the cavern zone
* bug fix - domain selection working as intended again (last seen in beta 5)
* bug fix - player tiles properly displaying dual-wielded weapons
* bug fix - nixed a debug message for ranger favored enemy
* bug fix - enabled drag and drop in inventory at last
* bug fix - heal log info shown only if you can see source actor
* bug fix - food items now have proper subtype defined instead of nil
* bug fix - no more searching for pseudo traps [kudos to StarKeep]

* new spell: transmute rock to mud
* new zones: labirynth, xorn lair, town, aberrant lair, arena
* new feats: Roll with It, Ignore Wound, Resillient [all from Incursion]
* new tiles: sand, ice; blink dog, barghest, hell hound, yeth hound
* new curse: of weakness
* hirelings
* deity system
* day/night cycle with exotic colors
* color code hit and miss messages
* add monster type to its tooltip
* spellcasters now get spells at start (except Sorcerers and Shamans)
* made character creation screen tabbed
* implement Zizzo's code allowing for hand-picking egos
* many improvements to debug screens
* overhaul actor tooltips code
* renamed existing zones: Upperdark -> compound; Middledark -> tunnels
* change starting zone to tunnels

I am only aware of two minor issues right now - the character sometimes having to make 2 saving throws in a row against falling on ice and one of the change shape spells throwing an error for no obvious reasons.

[Zireael]

While you're playing beta 6, I'm brainstorming stuff for the next release, including:

• ASCII mode improvements
  changing prices so that the game operates on a silver standard instead of gold standard
  introducing a parry bonus such as in Incursion
  body parts system and the effects of hitting them
  adding weight to money and banks you could deposit it in
  using a defense roll instead of static AC

Some of the changes proposed are a pretty radical change compared to the game's d20 roots, so I would like some opinions.

[Castler]

I spent some time playing Veins tonight. Here are some thoughts, in no particular order.

Monster difficulty is often high. I ran into a grick on level 1, and with DR 10/magic, I don't think I even managed to hurt it. I ran into a CR 4 stag beetle who beat my dwarven fighter within an inch of his life. My sorcerer started 3 squares from a CR 3 earth elemental. With no spells, he very quickly died. My wizard confidently strolled through the dungeon, using Fiery Burst to shoot down everything from a distance... until he ran into a howler who moved 4 spaces in one turn and ate his face. Game balance is a tricky thing, and Veins wouldn't be a proper roguelike without the occasional overpowered monster, but some balancing is probably merited. Bugs don't help (see below).

I was surprised to see that fighters start with the ability to summon a mount. I haven't decided what I think of this. On the one hand, having a mount in a roguelike that's not NetHack or Hengband is really cool. On the other hand, I'm surprised I get it so early. Also, as it is, it's very abusable:

• There's no cooldown and no limit to the number of creatures you can summon. Swarm the level with heavy warhorses!
• The major movement speed boost means you can kite many enemies (like the stag beetle I mentioned above) with impunity. If I were patient enough, I could have killed the stag beetle at level 1 by taking one or two hits and running away to heal, since I could outrun it with ease and it apparently couldn't heal.

DR/magic seems to be broken; even though I was wielding a magical longbow, I always did 0 damage. From looking very briefly at the code, it looks like self.magic_bonus (game.player.magic_bonus, in this case) is checked, but magic_bonus is a property of the weapon (and possibly game.player.combat), not the player.

I don't understand the purpose of containers. 15 encumbrance for an empty bag seems like a lot compared to, say, a 5 foot steel greatsword's encumbrance of 8, and they don't seem to serve any purpose other than organizing your backpack. Am I missing something?

Corpses, meanwhile, weigh 0, which strains my suspension of disbelief.

Two pet peeves with ID'ing equipment:

• Starting equipment is un-ID'ed. Surely my character should know that his starting rations and water are, in fact, rations and water?
• Pseudo-ID and auto-ID pick a random item to ID from your entire inventory. It would make more sense to have them randomly select from only those items that aren't already identified. I can try and come up with a pull request for this if you're interested.

Summoned monsters never time out. It looks like this is because NPC.act always sets ai away from ally, and the ally ai is what handles summon_time. (AI routines are probably the wrong place to handle summon_time.)

Summon Monster I always summons a wolf, regardless of what you choose.

Any chance of letting spontaneous casters start with their spells? Having to rest to be able to cast anything is unlucky if you start with an enemy in sight.

Skill points are buggy (or at least doesn't match D20). It looks like it's (class skill points) * 4 + (int - 10) / 2 for level 1, when D&D 3.0 and 3.5 use ((class skill points) + (int - 10) / 2 round down) * 4. Skill points for leveling up also don't round intelligence modifier down. Is this intentional?

The bleeding effect isn't what I would expect. Blood seems to spray out in a 180 degree arc instead of mostly dripping down.

While bleeding and dying, I can't move at all, even to attack the enemy next to me. This makes dying a rather frustrating experience for melee fighters.

I'm not certain about spell balance. Sleep's DC is really high. Too bad I can't do a coup de grace on a sleeping foe like I can in D20. Burning Hands and Magic Missile's damage is so low they hardly seem worth using, at least at level 1; far better to pick up Fiery Burst and get a free, 0 cooldown ranged attack. Spell DCs in general don't match D&D and don't take ability modifiers into account; not sure if this is intentional.

My fighter started with a magic longbow equipped. I failed to realize this. Fortunately, a magic longbow is apparently a very serviceable melee weapon; as far as I can tell, it does the same damage as it would at range and even gets x3 on a crit. I had great fun going around lethally stabbing foes with my extra-pokey longbow.

The new character creation screen is nice, but it lost the tooltips explaining what different stats do. (In particular, there's no indication that Luck does nothing - or has Luck been implemented now?)

[Zireael]

Wow, Castler, that's some amazing feedback. Beta 6 was released due to RL stuff and lengthy changelog and not because I deemed it particularly complete.

/Addendum: My home's a mess right now (argh, indoor painters not caring to show up and finish their work), so I don't know how soon I'll get around to fixing stuff/

Monster difficulty is often high. I ran into a grick on level 1, and with DR 10/magic, I don't think I even managed to hurt it. I ran into a CR 4 stag beetle who beat my dwarven fighter within an inch of his life. My sorcerer started 3 squares from a CR 3 earth elemental. With no spells, he very quickly died. My wizard confidently strolled through the dungeon, using Fiery Burst to shoot down everything from a distance... until he ran into a howler who moved 4 spaces in one turn and ate his face

I planned to bump up some monster CRs (razor boar, satyr, grick, pretty much anything with DR). As for starting close to monsters, I plan to implement a distance filter for monster generation. My grasp of T-Engine speeds is also pretty tenuous and I am going to fix monster speeds.

There's no cooldown and no limit to the number of creatures you can summon. Swarm the level with heavy warhorses!

Obviously a bug, not intended

DR/magic seems to be broken; even though I was wielding a magical longbow, I always did 0 damage. From looking very briefly at the code, it looks like self.magic_bonus (game.player.magic_bonus, in this case) is checked, but magic_bonus is a property of the weapon (and possibly game.player.combat), not the player.

Weapons work by granting whatever they have to the wielder (=player in this case), but I will double check.

I don't understand the purpose of containers. 15 encumbrance for an empty bag seems like a lot compared to, say, a 5 foot steel greatsword's encumbrance of 8, and they don't seem to serve any purpose other than organizing your backpack. Am I missing something?

Corpses, meanwhile, weigh 0, which strains my suspension of disbelief.

Silly oversights. Should get fixed soon.

Starting equipment is un-ID'ed. Surely my character should know that his starting rations and water are, in fact, rations and water?
Pseudo-ID and auto-ID pick a random item to ID from your entire inventory. It would make more sense to have them randomly select from only those items that aren't already identified. I can try and come up with a pull request for this if you're interested.

Starting equipment has a full_id=true flag, time to check why it isn't ID'ed in-game.
As for ID-ing, yes, that would be a better idea. Also it should work for equipped/worn items, not only those in inventory. Something I've intended to fix for a long time but couldn't figure out how to do it.

Summon Monster I always summons a wolf, regardless of what you choose.

Seems I forgot to implement summoning the choice time to fix.

Skill points are buggy (or at least doesn't match D20). It looks like it's (class skill points) * 4 + (int - 10) / 2 for level 1, when D&D 3.0 and 3.5 use ((class skill points) + (int - 10) / 2 round down) * 4. Skill points for leveling up also don't round intelligence modifier down. Is this intentional?

No, it isn't (and probably caused by me having ended Maths 4 years ago)

While bleeding and dying, I can't move at all, even to attack the enemy next to me. This makes dying a rather frustrating experience for melee fighters.

Allowing attacking is a reasonable idea, the current code was made before I implemented the attack but not move thing for fungi.

Spell DCs in general don't match D&D and don't take ability modifiers into account; not sure if this is intentional.

Not intentional - they are meant to take ability modifiers into account, but I never figured out how to do it. Current values are placeholders.

I had great fun going around lethally stabbing foes with my extra-pokey longbow

Obviously not intended. Forbidding using ranged weapons in melee has been on my to-do list for ages now.

but it lost the tooltips explaining what different stats do.

Whoops, missed this one in reworking the character creation screen.

[Zireael]

[*] weights
[*] stat descriptions in char creation
[*] DR check
[*] extra-pokey longbows
... are now fixed. Other things will probably need more time and ID'ing will probably be better handled with Castler's PR.

[Zireael]

I've merged three Castler PRs in the last two days. ID now works as intended, some UI bugs are fixed and the class.lua should be made more readable soon (I can't into tables, but he can).

In other news, I've started a rework of speeds, so hopefully by beta 6.1, monster should no longer be able to 2 or 3-hit you.

***
Also, I started a new wiki for the game, located here: Link.

I've fleshed out the User Guide part of the wiki: User Guide
How do you like the character builds? Players have oft requested a 'default' button for character creation, so there's five builds to pick from. Which one do you want as default? Probably not the drow , but which one of the four appeals to you the most?